"This year I am sharing another compilation of quotes and concepts I have collected over the past year through reading, events, classes, presentations and workshops. These quotes have been valuable to me and I hope they will be to other innovative educators as well. I don't recall where I heard most of them (or even if it was me who said some of them), so I cited none of them. Oprah, The Element, Geoff Canada, and Alan November's BLC conference in Boston were inspirations for several. Feel free to Google if you are trying to locate the source, or leave a comment with a source you know."

Alanna Mitchell, a Toronto-based writer and journalist who specializes in global science issues, spent much of the past year investigating the controversial push to use brain science to improve education. She travelled to England, France, Australia and the U.S. as part of her 2008 Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy.